Day 1 - Oberalp Pass to Chur (Switzerland) - Ride the Rhine

September 9, 2024

Day 1 - Oberalp Pass to Chur (Switzerland)

Breathtaking Views... Then Rain

We made starting our ride a little bit of a challenge by missing three trains the day before going from Frankfurt Germany to Andermatt Switzerland. But we did finally make it to Göschenen Switzerland and got ourselves a hotel room by 10 PM Sunday night.

So on Monday we were able to get up in the wee hours of the morning and catch a couple quick trains to the peak of Oberalp Pass by sunrise (around 7:00 AM). Here's the first couple pics after hopping off the train

Replica of a light house that stands at the Rhine's source near Oberalp Pass. The light house it's modeled after is located at the Hook of Holland where the Rhine empties into the North Sea. The wording on the light house translates to "more than enough"

The altitude at our start was about 6713 feet

Ellen with our bikes about ready to start our journey

Here's our first video of the descent out of Oberalp Pass

Overlooking the first village about 3 or 4 miles into our ride

We stopped off for breakfast at a coffee shop with some amazing views in Disentis

Our first significant climb... just past Disentis

View looking back at Disentis after one of our first decent climbs

Here was the descent reward after that first climb (sorry about the wind noise)

Picture of me on a slick wet bridge right before I started pedaling, slipped and toppled over sending my phone off the bridge

Fortunately the river bed was just dry rocks. So I was able to climb down and retrieve it

The phone did pretty well after the fall... just some scratches on the bottom of the screen protector

One of the things I struggle with a little on my Cruzbike is that because of its front wheel drive train, I have a hard time w gravel hills (my front wheel just slips and doesn't always grab cause there's not as much weight on it compared to a traditional rear wheel drive bike). So I had to walk up a couple of these today. (There were more gravel passages than I was expecting... But they were pretty trails)

The light rain had been picking up a little so we decided to do an anti-rain dance to see if we could coerce the weather into a few more hours of clear sailing (it didn't work too well)

I made a friend after one of our huge climbs coming out of Ilanz

Ellen at the Ruinaulta Canyon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruinaulta), sometimes called the Rhine Gorge in Switzerland. The section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rudesheim in Germany is also called The Rhine Gorge. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Gorge)

We had booked our room for the night in Chur during our lunch in Illanz and since most of the ride (~40 miles) so far had been fairly easy, we figured we could easily make the last 20 miles into Chur. But we realized we were mistaken about the "easy" part as soon as we started out after lunch and began climbing... and then climbing some more. And this continued for the better part of what felt like 5 or 6 miles. Probably the most difficult stretch of our whole 12 day trip. Uphill and in the rain. But we did finally make it into Chur and to our hotel, an Ibis over top a McDonald's, before it got completely dark.

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Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 61 miles (98 km)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesOuch. Glad your phone, and you, are only minimally the worse for wear.
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3 weeks ago

Tricia GrahamThis is such a beautiful route. We did it the other way round which added to the climbing but loved it. Will enjoy following you
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3 weeks ago

Tony BontaTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThanks Steve, it's always annoying to just fall over after that first pedal crank, but fortunately at almost zero speed there's little damage to deal with. Just gotta make sure my phone and ego are intact
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3 weeks ago

Tony BontaTo Tricia GrahamWow, I'd definitely have a hard time on this 60 mile stretch climbing back up into Oberalppass. That's an impressive ride.
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3 weeks ago